Russia once again Wednesday rebuffed suspicions from Ukraine and the West that the military forces occupying the Crimean Peninsula are theirs, ahead of a planned meeting between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry.

A House hearing on the IRS targeting scandal rapidly broke down into a heated and deeply personal argument between a top Democrat and Republican, moments after former IRS official Lois Lerner once again invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to testify.

Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine has cast a deep pall over the 2014 Paralympic Games that formally begin March 7 at the Winter Olympics venue in Sochi, with the U.S. and British governments the first to announce they will not send official delegations to endorse the spectacle.

North Korea defended on Wednesday its recent missile firings as "ordinary military practice," as South Korea said Tuesday's volley passed above a Chinese passenger jet's route just minutes ahead of the airliner.